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Vision: A movement dedicated to cultivating young African American women who recognize and harness their self-worth and lead others to do the same.
Mission: Cocoa Girls' mission is to foster greater self-worth and increase health equity amongst African American adolescent girls through health education and self-esteem building exercises. We are dedicated to educating, empowering, and cultivating dynamic, young African American women who are not only confident, but capable of making informed and improved health and life choices.
Cocoa Girls: I Am Worthy is a health and social project that I developed while in my Master of Public Health graduate program. I have always known that I wanted to do work in my community and for my people, but that passion grew even deeper once I learned about all the health matters we faced. One issue that really struck a cord, was sexual and reproductive health amongst African American women. It was so disheartening to learn about all the bleak health statistics and how easily they could be prevented. This also showed me that more work needed to be done to shift these trends. That's when I decided that this would be my mission, this is where I would try to make the difference in my community. After having the opportunity to present the project to peers and colleagues at the American Public Health Association 2015 Annual Conference, I was beyond encouraged and thought to myself, I would love to see this project come to fruition.
I believe there is no better time than now! As a young African American woman, I know the importance of self-love, and the daily struggle of holding on to that joy in a world that tries to steal it away. And for that reason, I want to create something that will inspire and help our teen girls.
So I've created this fundraising campaign to get assistance in making this dream a reality. The funds from this campaign will be used for developmental purposes. This includes pilot presentations to girls in local housing projects, curriculum development, establishing nonprofit status, and increasing visibility of the project among various audiences through social media programming and merchandising. With your help, I would love to launch the pilot presentations by summer 2016. Any donation amount would mean the world to me and would put me one step closer to my goal. Even if you feel you can't support monetarily, I would greatly appreciate if you could spread the word and share the Cocoa Girls project with others.
I envision Cocoa Girls not only being a health project, but a social movement with limitless possibilities; and we can support this movement by working together!
Thank you for your time and interest!
Marquisha Henderson, MPH, CHES
Mission: Cocoa Girls' mission is to foster greater self-worth and increase health equity amongst African American adolescent girls through health education and self-esteem building exercises. We are dedicated to educating, empowering, and cultivating dynamic, young African American women who are not only confident, but capable of making informed and improved health and life choices.
Cocoa Girls: I Am Worthy is a health and social project that I developed while in my Master of Public Health graduate program. I have always known that I wanted to do work in my community and for my people, but that passion grew even deeper once I learned about all the health matters we faced. One issue that really struck a cord, was sexual and reproductive health amongst African American women. It was so disheartening to learn about all the bleak health statistics and how easily they could be prevented. This also showed me that more work needed to be done to shift these trends. That's when I decided that this would be my mission, this is where I would try to make the difference in my community. After having the opportunity to present the project to peers and colleagues at the American Public Health Association 2015 Annual Conference, I was beyond encouraged and thought to myself, I would love to see this project come to fruition.
I believe there is no better time than now! As a young African American woman, I know the importance of self-love, and the daily struggle of holding on to that joy in a world that tries to steal it away. And for that reason, I want to create something that will inspire and help our teen girls.
So I've created this fundraising campaign to get assistance in making this dream a reality. The funds from this campaign will be used for developmental purposes. This includes pilot presentations to girls in local housing projects, curriculum development, establishing nonprofit status, and increasing visibility of the project among various audiences through social media programming and merchandising. With your help, I would love to launch the pilot presentations by summer 2016. Any donation amount would mean the world to me and would put me one step closer to my goal. Even if you feel you can't support monetarily, I would greatly appreciate if you could spread the word and share the Cocoa Girls project with others.
I envision Cocoa Girls not only being a health project, but a social movement with limitless possibilities; and we can support this movement by working together!
Thank you for your time and interest!
Marquisha Henderson, MPH, CHES